Jim Powers
| birth_place = East Rutherford, New Jersey | death_place = | death_date = | resides = East Rutherford, New Jersey | billed = New York City, New York | trainer = Big John Studd | debut = 1984 | retired = February 3, 2010 |}} James Manley (January 4, 1958), better known by his ring name Jim Powers, is an American retired professional wrestler. He most notably wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s. He also wrestled for World Championship Wrestling in the mid-1990s. The high point of his career was teaming with Paul Roma as The Young Stallions. Professional wrestling career Powers was discovered and brought into the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in late 1984 by Big John Studd who also had a hand in training him. In 1985, Powers ventured outside the WWF to gain more experience, including two Texas based promotions: Texas All-Star Wrestling and World Class Championship Wrestling where he appeared at a couple of the federation's featured "Star Wars" events. After gaining more experience, Powers returned to the WWF. Young Stallions He arguably reached the peak of his career in the WWF when Powers, on March 11, 1987, along with another preliminary wrestler Paul Roma, formed a tag team called The Young Stallions. At first the team had no name, and the original pairing saw Roma and Powers teamed with Tito Santana in a six-man tag team match against the team of Don Muraco, Bob Orton, Jr., and Tiger Chung Lee on Wrestling Challenge. Surprisingly the team of Powers, Roma, and Santana were victorious when Santana pinned Lee, after Muraco and Orton walked away from the match. Following the win, the team lost twice to Demolition, as well as an eight-man tag team match against members of The Heenan Family in June 1987. Powers and Roma finally gained their first televised victory in regular tag team action in late July 1987 when they faced another preliminary team, Barry Horowitz and Steve Lombardi. The team was dominant and announcer Bobby Heenan was stunned when Roma unleashed an off the top rope sunset flip. Fresh off of their first win, Powers and Roma were scheduled to face The Hart Foundation on an August 8, 1987 episode of Superstars (taped August 4), they scored an upset disqualification victory over WWF Tag Team Champions The Hart Foundation. The team seemingly received their name by accident when color commentator Bruno Sammartino referred to them once as "a couple of young stallions" thus naming the team. In October 1987 the Young Stallions became the official moniker of the Powers and Roma tag team. A storyline playing off of their upset win over the Hart Foundation was started as they "stole" the theme song "Crank It Up" from Jimmy Hart, who had intended to use it for his team. Later that month they faced The Hart Foundation in a rematch on Saturday Night's Main Event. The Stallions were narrowly defeated and now clearly had momentum. Along with The Killer Bees, they were also the only survivors in the elimination tag team match at the first annual Survivor Series pay-per-view on November 26, 1987. That momentum however seemed to end in January 1988 when the Stallions faced The Islanders in a best two out of three falls match in the final bout of the inaugural Royal Rumble. Powers and Roma were defeated cleanly in two straight falls. The team was placed in featured matches on television and at house shows, but most times ended up on the losing end to teams such as The Bolsheviks, The Brain Busters, and The Fabulous Rougeaus. Following yet another loss, this time to Demolition on the March 19, 1989 episode of Wrestling Challenge, the team began arguing after the match. Their final televised match was a loss to The Powers of Pain in July 1989. Soon, they were split up off camera without an official announcement. Roma and Powers went their separate ways and both floundered on the undercard afterward, with Powers sustaining an injury that forced him out of action until March 1990. Roma and Powers feuded for a while during this period, but this soon was scrapped, and they both returned to competing in singles matches. After the Young Stallions As Roma began teaming with Hercules to form the team of Power and Glory that spring, Powers began to occasionally partner with Jim Brunzell. Powers had an opportunity to face his former partner in August 1990 episode of Prime Time Wrestling when Power and Glory defeated Powers & Brunzell. On house shows, Roma faced off against Powers in singles competition multiple times during that month as well, with Roma coming out victorious at every outcome. For the next four years Powers was featured primarily as a singles wrestler, During this time, he most notably became the first WWF wrestler to lose to Ric Flair when the "Nature Boy" made his Federation debut on the September 30, 1991 episode of Prime Time Wrestling. While sustaining televised losses to top stars like Mr. Perfect, Ted DiBiase, The Undertaker, Powers also defeated Al Perez, Steve Lombardi, and The Predator. In 1991, Powers teamed with a variety of partners, with such wrestlers as Marty Jannetty, and Owen Hart, in both House Shows, and televised shows. Probably his peak push came in June 1992, when he returned after a several month hiatus from television to pin Lombardi and Bob Bradley. He followed this up with numerous house show victories, and closed 1992 with a Wrestling Challenge victory against Brian Lee in October. From this point on however he was unable to move up the card, although he narrowly lost to Jerry Lawler in April 1993 on WWF Monday Night Raw and defeated Repo Man on house shows. Powers also defeated The Tazmaniac on a house show on June 30, 1993 in Atlantic City, NJ. He ended 1993 with a victory over Papa Shango at a house show on July 23 in Syracuse NY. After a five-month hiatus he returned to the roster, wrestling primarily on house shows against Rick Martel and Kwang. His final television appearances came in July 1994, when he faced Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett on WWF Superstars and Wrestling Challenge. Powers ended his WWF career on a winning streak, defeating Abe Schwartz at Madison Square Garden on October 29 and again in Scranton, PA the following night. He then departed, a full decade after first signing with the company. American Wrestling Federation In 1994, Powers competed for the short lived American Wrestling Federation (AWF) on the TV series Warriors of Wrestling where he was a fan favorite. He also teamed with Johnny Gunn while in the AWF. During all of their AWF tag matches, Powers and Gunn would struggle until Powers lowered his singlet straps to reveal his finely chiseled torso. In apparent awe, the opposing team would instantly wither and Powers and Gunn would quickly secure a pin. Unlike his WWF run, however, Powers had a more successful run as a whole in the AWF, most of the times coming out victorious, even wrestling enhancement talent alongside his tag-team partner Gunn. On the November 22, 1994 episode of ECW Hardcore TV, Powers unsuccessfully challenged ECW World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas for the title. World Championship Wrestling Powers resurfaced in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the spring of 1995. He was scouted and then managed for a brief time by Teddy Long as well as being scheduled to form a mid-card stable with “Desperado" Joe Gomez and The Renegade but nothing ever came of it. He was attacked and spray painted during a mid-1996 match by the emerging New World Order (nWo). The reason for the attack was simply that the nWo wanted to address the crowd; it didn't really have anything to do with Jim Powers as he was just an expendable body. Powers found a little success in WCW, including challenging Dean Malenko for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, but he was mainly used to make younger stars look good. Powers teamed briefly with Bobby Walker, and they also were managed by Teddy Long. Powers finally left the company in early 1999 after being one of the sixty competitors in the annual WCW World War 3 pay-per-view in 1996. Semi-retirement After spending several years in semi-retirement and rehabbing a neck injury that forced him out of the squared circle in the first place, Jim Powers returned to wrestling for an independent promoter on March 9, 2007. Since returning to wrestling, Powers has wrestled for several independent based organizations and has appeared, pairing back up with Young Stallions partner Paul Roma, at several wrestling fan fests meeting his fans and signing their autographs. In 2007, Powers was contacted by WWE to be a part of their developmental territory and train wrestlers there. Despite meeting face-to-face with WWE booker, John Laurinaitis, Powers never received a contract with the promotion. Powers said in recent interviews that he almost left his then-current job to work with the WWE, and also said Laurinaitis told him there weren't any places available in the developmental territories, but would call him if there was one. Powers said Laurinaitis repeated this so many times he didn't believe him anymore. On February 3, 2010, Powers announced his retirement. In 2012, Powers was hospitalized, and had two hip surgeries. In July 2016, Manley was named part of a class action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred traumatic brain injuries during their tenure and that the company concealed the risks of injury. The suit is litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE. In wrestling *'Finishing moves' **Running powerslam *'Signature moves' **Dropkick, sometimes from the top rope **Knee lift **Hip Toss **Suplex **Clothesline Championships and accomplishments *'NWA Jersey' **NWA New Jersey Television Tag Team Championship (1 time)- with Danny Inferno *'Northeast Championship Wrestling (Tom Janette)' **NCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ray Apollo *'Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling' **PCW Americas Championship (1 time) *'Pro Wrestling Illustrated' **PWI ranked him #'197' of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 1996 External links * Profile * Profile * Profile Category:American wrestlers Category:American Wrestling Federation alumni Category:Powerhouse Wrestling alumni Category:Prime Time Wrestling alumni Category:World Championship Wrestling alumni Category:World Class Championship Wrestling alumni Category:World Wrestling Entertainment alumni Category:1984 debuts Category:1958 births Category:2010 retirements Category:National Wrestling Alliance alumni Category:World Class Wrestling Association alumni Category:Super World Sports alumni Category:Extreme Championship Wrestling alumni Category:Mid Eastern Wrestling Federation alumni Category:NWA New Jersey alumni Category:Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling alumni Category:Pro Wrestling Syndicate alumni Category:NWA Pro Wrestling alumni Category:Saarland Wrestling Organisation alumni Category:Independent Wrestling Federation alumni Category:Deutsche Wrestling Allianz alumni Category:International World Class Championship Wrestling alumni Category:New Jersey wrestlers Category:Living people Category:Male wrestlers